Measuring Women and Men’s Work

Abstract

Between 2017 and 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, in collaboration with the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) of Sri Lanka, completed a pilot study in Sri Lanka with the goal of developing guidance on good practice in the measurement of women and men’s work through household surveys. The study was designed to enable a comparison of the outcomes of two types of household surveys, namely, the labour force survey (LFS) and the multitopic living standards survey (MLSS). This new framework recognizes that people may engaged in multiple working activities within the same period, thereby enabling a complete accounting all work performed. An additional important development was the adoption of an extended set of labour underutilization indicators to supplement the unemployment rate. This report presents a first summary set of the findings of the pilot study. The findings are being used to generate guidance on the measurement of labour across different types of household surveys. While highlighting issues of measurement, the report also emphasizes the valuable data that can be generated if the guidelines and standards are implemented, such as the more comprehensive measurement of all the working contributions of men and women.